It’s Andrew Hastie v Basil Zempilas in the wild west

A dramatic split has emerged between Western Australia's two most promising Liberal figures after Basil Zempilas rejected member-led motions against net zero targets.

Leader of the WA Liberals Basil Zempilas is under fire for his support of net zero. Picture: NewsWire

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The two great hopes of the Western Australian Liberal Party have fallen out publicly over net zero, with federal MP Andrew Hastie expressing his disappointment over the decision by WA Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas to ignore a member-led motion opposing the climate policy.

Mr Hastie, the federal opposition’s home affairs spokesman, emailed supporters on Tuesday night criticising Mr Zempilas for failing to embrace the position endorsed at the party’s state council on Saturday.

The motion calling for the abandonment of net zero was moved by Mr Hastie’s Canning division and was publicly endorsed by Mr Hastie.

Senior Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie. Picture: Richard Dobson

In the email, Mr Hastie said the net zero motion reflected “a growing concern from mainstream Australians about our expensive energy bills, unreliable supply, and the erosion of our national sovereignty”.

“I was therefore disappointed to see WA Liberal leader Basil Zempilas publicly dismiss those concerns,” he wrote, before reproducing Mr Zempilas’ quote from The Australian stating the parliamentary Liberal Party’s support for the status quo.

A letter from Federal MP Andrew Hastie expressing his disappointment over Basil Zempilas's decision to ignore member-led party motions opposing the measures.

Mr Hastie said the Liberal Party was built on strong membership and open debate, and that he would always back the party’s members.

“When members speak up, we don’t ignore them – we listen. They trust their elected parliamentarians to fight for them,” he said.

“People are right to ask questions about Labor’s net zero climate and energy policy. It’s driving up costs, killing jobs, and handing control of our energy future to foreign interests.”

While Mr Hastie’s net zero motion and the Michaelia Cash-endorsed motions against welcome to country ceremonies and the Indigenous flags had put pressure on federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, they had also complicated Mr Zempilas’s leadership.

The former media personality was strongly backed for the leadership by several state MPs who are believed to strongly support the net zero and Aboriginal symbolism motions, including upper house MPs Nick Goiran, Simon Ehrenfeld and Phil Twiss.

Mr Zempilas has also come under direct fire from influential conservative lobby group Advance Australia, which branded him a “loser” on social media over his positions.

The public disagreement between Mr Hastie and Mr Zempilas is another setback for the Liberals to rebuild their presence in WA, given both men had been widely seen as the party’s best hopes in the west.

Mr Zempilas is trying to rebuild a state parliamentary party that has suffered three consecutive record-breaking defeats and which holds just seven of 59 lower house seats.

And Mr Hastie was a rare electoral bright spot for the Liberals in WA at the last federal election, with his ability to increase his margin, at an election in which his party went backwards in the state, doing little to dent his future leadership aspirations.